"cnn newsroom" continues right now with our chief business correspondent and the host of "cnn newsroom" ali velshi in new york city. >> tony, i miss you in person. >> come on back. >> i'm going to come back. i miss you. >> have a great show. as tony said, i'm ali velshi. i'm here for the next two hours today and every day. i'm going to guide you through that maze of information. you'll get access to folks who can best explain what it means today, the impact beyond today. you know what we do on the show. we showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy and public education. i'm going to help you figure out what is going on around you and how it figures into your life. i've got a brand new rundown. here's what's on it. the family table, it can do a lot more than fill your belly, it might keep your kids off drugs. i've got results of a new study that might change your dinner plans. plus, new technology that

might change the way you eat outside your home. especially if you have any kind of restricted diet or know anyone who does. or if you're like me you travel so much, you want to eat better. you will never look at a restaurant menu the same again. will the first lady have the last word on the midterm elections? the white house sure hopes so. it is sending michelle obama on a major swing through the campaign trail. we'll look at whether she'll be the boost that democrats and her husband need. six months ago this week, a top to bottom overhaul of u.s. health care, an overhaul that presidents dating back to teddy roosevelt have contemplated, debated, or attempted. six months ago, it was sign into law by president obama. today as you may have seen live here on cnn, the president talking about provisions of that law that come into force this week. this is the first of that health care bill. it's what the white house calls a patients' bill of rights. he's just about the only democrat who is going to use

health and reform in the same sentence because the reason has to do with the calendar. we're 40 days away from the elections where every single house seat and 37 senate seats are up for grabs. voters are split to say the least. 40% of americans favor reform, 56% oppose it. there are some tricks to that poll because the 56% oppose, some oppose because it didn't go far enough. most say it's too liberal, but a sizable chunk says it doesn't go far enough. when we ask which party can handle the issue better, it's a dead heat. all of this forms a backdrop to the president's visit to a family home in falls church, virginia. >> and health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore. we couldn't ignore it because the cost of health care has been escalating faster than just about anything else. and i don't need to tell you all that. even if you you have health insurance, seen your co-payments, premiums skyrocket.

even if you get health care from your employer, that employers' costs have skyrocketed and they're starting to pass more and more of those to their employees. more people don't get health care from their employers. >> now, republicans are vowing to undercut, some are actually vowing to repeal health reforms if they win control of the house. in the meantime, 20 different states are suing the federal court. in florida, calling health insurance mandates an unconstitutional power grab. basically saying that the u.s. government is not empowered to do some of the things they've done in health care reform. it's a little bit like an al capone case. it's got to do with the rights the federal government has to impose certain things. the ruling is next week to throw that lawsuit out. let's talk a little bit about the politics of it today. our senior political analyst gloria borger who knows so much about this debate and ed henry

who knows that while this is a touchstone, ed, of the president's entire election, there are reasons why democrats want to stay away from it. before that, ed, i want you to give me 30 seconds on news we're getting about rahm emanuel, the white house chief of staff maybe leaving even sooner than expected. >> reporter: that's right. big news, ali. two sources close to rahm emanuel now telling cnn that there's a good chance he's going to leave, step down as early as october. to focus full-time to focus on running for mayor. the bottom line, he's all but in. he's got deadlines coming up to get some signatures and get on the ballot by the end of november. we're expecting he's going to move full-time that pretty soon. he's working on a lot of senate business for the president. once they leave the door before the election, he's likely to go. the other piece of information, we should point out "time"

magazine reported this story and we're confirming and adding a layer of detail that i'm hearing a white house deputy chief of staff is likely to be the acting chief of staff. not a done deal yet, but likely. why is that significant? this may happen so quickly they may not be able to get a full-time chief of staff up and running, they may need an interim person to deal with this because i think it's happening quicker than some people expected. >> and we will check in a little more with you in the next hour of the show. gloria, let's go back to health care and health reform right now. this is an issue. the president worked hard to get it. senate democrats and house democrats did everything they could. this was a party line vote. and now there are some people who would rather they don't trumpet the success all that much. six months in, the beginning of the health care bill. this is the first time it's going to touch people. and there are some people who don't want to talk about it. >> it depends what district you're in, but if you're a moderate democrat in a swing

district, chances are there are a lot of folks who oppose health care reform in your district. and so you don't want to talk about it very much because folks are upset about it. also, and what the president's trying to do today, ali, is point out what the white house calls the deliverables. the things that are happening as of today in health care reform that can help your family. such as, no more pre-existing conditions for children. young parents can now keep their kids on their health care until the age of 26. lifting lifetime limits on health care benefits. those things are going to happen now. but the problem with health care reform is that a lot of it is back loaded. so people won't feel it until 2014. so the white house is saying, here are the things we can point to today that are going to take effect that you're going to like and people ought to listen to this is what democrats are going

to say. >> and how does the president handle this? because this was the touchstone of what he ran on. it's what he wanted to do. in fact, health care reform was on the ropes until the president actually took the lead from nancy pelosi and harry reid. this is his thing. and then he's got these issues about some people in his own party not wanting this to be trumpeted as much as it is. >> reporter: well, i think gloria hit it right on the head this. is supposed to be the crown jewel of the obama agenda. that he extended it fdr social security, lbj medicare, obama now health care reform finally after several presidents trying. it hasn't really quite worked out that way in terms of being a crowning achievement. i've got a story right now on cnn.com where i spent a couple of days this weekend in southeastern virginia. there's a democratic incumbent congressman glenn nye, a freshman, on the ropes facing a tough republican challenge. and as gloria says, he doesn't want to be anywhere close to health reform. he voted against the plan. he doesn't want the president campaigning in his district. this was supposed to be an issue

that was tough a few months ago. to gut it out and get it through. but then the white house was suggesting, look, it's going to be a big win for democrats. and instead, a lot of them are running from it. and the president, this is the first time he's mentioned health reform in a big sense in quite some time. he's been focusing on economy and jobs because he knows that's what people want to hear. >> you know, ali, i think people want a change, but they didn't want this much change. and i think when you look at health care reform, it's so large -- it's not very easy for people to digest, particularly when this is administration that has also done the stimulus package, it's done financial reform, it's done the bank bailouts. >> let me ask you this, gloria. if we were not struggling with everything in this economy, with 9.6% unemployment, with home prices that are muddling along. when would it be perfect to have health care reform? it was never going to be small. it could never really be -- in fact, some criticism is it still

doesn't deal with costs. >> right. and i think you're absolutely right. there's no perfect time to reform health care. hillary clinton learned that in the early '90s. and i think also there's no way to do small health care reform as you very well know. so the white house decided it had to go for it because it had its congressional majorities right now. >> it certainly wasn't going to happen if they lose that. >> looking back on it, should they have done it when they did it? should they have focused on the economy? those are questions we're all going to be asking after the midterm elections and into 2012. >> okay. we'll be talking to you both again. gloria, thanks a million. ed, we'll talk to you more. you'll give us a little more analysis as to what's going on in the power shake-up in the white house. ed henry and gloria borger, the best political team on television. we've talked about the politics of health care reform. let's get into the nuts and bolts of it. if you're confused about what happens today, what all this means for your health plan and

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okay. let's get into the nuts and bolts of health care reform. big changes kicking in tomorrow, six months after the law took effect. some of those changes may not apply to you. this is the front end. josh levs, best guy to break things down. here now to understand or help us understand a little bit more about the health care law. josh? >> and you know, it's so complicated. and in the end, everyone's going to have to check your own plan. tomorrow marks six months since the president signed the legislation and that also is with the date that some of these big changes come into effect.

for those of you out there who have a plan provided by your employer, you probably won't see changes until january 1. that's when the new year kicks in and a lot of the changes will kick in for you. for individuals or groups who have new plans starting tomorrow, you could start to see some changes right away. i'll talk you through some of those changes and then a big caveat. why you plan might not ever get any of them. first of all, insurers can no longer rescind coverage. if you get sick, you're going about your business, get seriously sick, they cannot come along and then take away that from you. also they can't go back to your original application and see if you've got something wrong and try to use that to drop you. children are now covered for pre-existing conditions. that is going to apply. as soon as this new stuff kicks in, children under 19 will be covered for pre-existing conditions. and another one, no lifetime limits. they cannot say you've hit a certain dollar amount and they're not going to cover it past there. no lifetime limits. those three things should apply no matter what.

here's the next set of stuff i'm going to show you. there are some changes here that i'm going to talk to you about and then i'll tell you why they might not apply to you. the law calls for a patient-friendly appeals process. if you have a problem and you want to appeal it, it says your company has to keep covering everything, including subsequent care until that gets figured out. and it's calling for level charges for emergency services. so if you have to go to an emergency room and it just so happens that an emergency room is out of network, they can't charge you more for it, clearly it was an emergency. and one more, free preventive care. basics like mammograms and colonoscopies. these things, a few others, will not apply if your plan is something called grandfathered. certain plans -- if they're not going through big changes right now. if they already exist, if they're grandfathered, they don't have to follow all the changes. so what you're going the to need to do is look into your

workplace and your health care plan, find out exactly which things are going to apply to you and when. so ali, that's the next step for everyone in this country. finding out how many of these changes actually apply to the plan they have. >> josh. what did i say i should call you? what's your jersey shore name? >> the explanation. >> the explanation. that's right. because it's a noun rather than a verb. i would have called you the explainer, but the explanation. >> did you see your boy, the situation dance the other night? >> i did see him. >> and? >> yeah. >> we can move on. >> all right, buddy. good to see you as always. josh levs "the explanation." should the ultrawealthy be giving away half their fortunes? melinda gates says she thinks so and she says she's going to keep asking them until they do it. we're going to hear from her in a minute. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving cream works quickly

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a big challenge to the really rich people out there. i know you're watching me. from the gates family. melinda gates along with her husband bill gates and warren buffett control the gates foundation this. is a $33 billion fund that is aiming to improve global health care and reduce extreme poverty. among other things, those founders that i just named have challenged the ultra rich to give away half of their wealth. poppy, you had a chance to sit down and have a conversation with melinda gates. did she convince you? >> of course, you know, what an interesting time to have people talk about giving away half or more of your wealth.

melinda gates in new york this week for the u.n. general assembly, the clinton global initiative sitting down with us saying now is the time that the private sector has to step up even more because donor countries, governments around the world are pulling back what they are giving the countries. they're pulling back, more of the reason for all of us to step up. take a listen to our part of the conversation. >> certainly private donations can't make up for the lack of government when they get cut substantially. both, it's not just in country. it's when the donor countries cut their budgets, as well. so there's no way that fill l e philanthropy can fill that in. and it's great to see governments like the uk saying we're really going to stick to our commitments, the commitments we've made -- >> despite other cuts. >> very difficult cuts inside their country. and i think it's because they realize that aid is being incredibly effective. and that's one of the messages, bill and i want people to understand. from what we're seeing on the ground, the health aid is really working and it's making a difference and it's why we're

going to make some of these millennium development goals. >> when you look at the giving pledge, with you, bill, and warren buffett. really trying to invigorate billionaires around the world to give half or more, if they would like, of their money away. how is that going? are you seeing more people coming on board? >> we are. no, we've had nice momentum over the series of months we've been doing. and i think every conversation which is great leads to another conversation. and what i'm so excited about when you talked with couples about their giving is it's not just giving their money. it's them getting drawn into a cause and using their hearts and their minds. if they built a great business, they're going to use the same business tools they knew and the business brain to work on philanthropy. that can change things and that's fantastic too. >> how do you want to see this pledge change the face of philanthropy? >> i want to become the expectation in the u.s. >> the expectation? >> absolutely. if you are wealthy, you are to give it back to society. and as well, i even like talking to the families who aren't as wealthy and talk about giving

back your time and energy. i see so many people that have so much they can give back. and a little bit it's just channelling ways that people can then do that. >> so obviously giving not just for the super rich. but ali, interesting, she talked after that about the inequity in the world. and said the reason the gates foundation also invests so much in education is because she and bill see that as the great equalizer. >> absolutely. and they've been on that for a long time that issue. interesting, though, she talked about donations of time and knowledge, not just money. >> not just money. >> for the less wealthy, just the idea you can dedicate yourselves to things. and we focus on that a lot. people who are not necessarily wealthy, but they do things. >> it's an interesting time because as you heard her say in the interview, countries like the uk that have austerity measures, they're asking their own citizens to pull back. they have stuck to their promise of giving. so she says, you know, where you have donor countries pulling back, they're really hurting the

efforts that the gates foundation et cetera are making in africa and indonesia around the world. she says this is the time where the private sector has to step up. but there is this focus now because we've seen through the recession the great wealth that there is, the great destruction of wealth. but how do you equalize on some level these nations? you have five or more years to reach those goals by 2015. one of which is cutting poverty in half. she says they're going to achieve that. >> a lot of people talking about that. we're going to talk about it. poppy, great interview, an eating dinner with your ki. it's good for any family, that everybody knows. but a new study says it can also be a form of drug prevention. we're going to talk to one of the guys behind it straight ahead. stay with me. c s.

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well, you can call it a smart home, it's downright brilliant. a group of students have developed a solar-powered house that can make your day a whole lot brighter. they've won europe's solar decathlon in the process. rob marciano takes us to the edge of discovery. >> reporter: welcome to the home of the future. when you wake up, the cold, concrete floor warms up. your favorite music starts playing, and coffee begins to brew. and as you drive away, the house locks itself. >> it's the solar house that gets all of the energy from the sun. >> reporter: a group of virginia tech students designed the house to be completely automated. it even has insulation panels

that adjust on its own. >> it operates on its own. it will maintain 100% energy efficiency. however, no one likes to be completely controlled by computer. >> reporter: you can override any command using an iphone or ipad. inside, the house is about 600 square feet, but the small spaces are all multi-functional. >> you really have to convince people because it's so small that they could live in here. so the space-saving solutions are a big selling point for us. >> reporter: in the bedroom, the kitchen, and the living room. >> when these sliding doors are open and you open the area up to the decks, you triple your square footage. >> reporter: even the water can be reused using outside recycling ponds. designers say homes like this could be on the market in just a few years. rob marciano, cnn. okay. sometimes i say things that seem remarkably obvious. guess what, if you have dinner with your kids on a regular basis, they're less likely to get into trouble, you're more likely to be in touch with them,

and they're more likely to talk to you about the things on their mind. everybody thinks that's probably the case, but i want to get to some stats right now. take a look at this. this is something we've talked about, but not much. drug use among teenagers. kids 12 to 17, it'd been in decline since 2002. but look at what happened in 2007-2008. elicit drugs started picking up in 2008, marijuana use in 2007, psych therapeutics in 2008 started to go up. kids are using drugs a little bit more. what can you do about this? i want to tell you about a study that's come out that might tell you a little bit about this. i'm joined by clyde. he's a senior vice president at coca-cola, but also extremely involved. it's supported by coca-cola, but you've done a study that does

two things. one is that kids are having dinner with their parents and want to have dinner with their parents. over the course of the last ten years, you'll see an increase of about 10%. relatively stable. having dinner five to seven times with their parents, that's fantastic. turns out that there's actually statistics that show if kids have dinner with they parents a lot, they are less likely to use drugs. >> correct. >> like you said, sounds intuitive, but we've got studies now that show it. >> by the way, ali, the research is definitive. and this research is now more than a decade old. the center for addiction and substance abuse at columbia university. they first did this research in 1996. he did it for a couple of years and it showed the same trend. now it's intuitive. you have dinner with your family, sit around the table, have conversations. but the incidence of drug, tobacco, and alcohol usage was half. >> tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, we've divided it up.

you've shown us on -- you've given us -- actually, let's go to a different one. it's a bar chart that shows us tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use in families. if we've got that. there we go. look at that. hard to see some of that graphic. but the red bars are kids who have dinner with their parents zero to two times a week and that dark bar is if you have dinner with your family five to seven times a week. look at the difference. it's half in almost every case except marijuana. >> it's about 1 1/2. but nearly twice as much. but again, you think about it, it's intuitive. because the magic that happens around dinner. it's not about the food. the magic around dinner is about the conversation. those families who gather on a regular basis, they find out what their kids are doing. find out what's going on at school and they listen. this is the other important piece. the whole dynamic creates an environment of connecting kids and their parents. that's the key. >> again, it's not that it is

dinner. if you have some other way to spend great quality time, because for a lot of parents the pressure might be -- >> think about it, when i was a kid, we had breakfast every morning, dinner every night, the world has changed. i've got two teenage kids, but guess what? they're on the move constantly, but the key is finding those moments, those opportunities when you can connect with your kids. and find out what's going on. and this research, you know, now over ten years old provides data, provides a statistical reason to do this. not just the intuition. >> and that's the important part that -- we knew -- we all thought it's the case, but when there's actual data if you spend time with your kids, you can save them a lot of trouble. keeping them off of drugs means better chances at education, which means better chances at life generally. pleasure to see you, my friend. i'll see you back in atlanta. >> enjoy your dinner. clyde tuggle is the senior vice president of global affairs at coca-cola. coming up, the first lady is

turning into a campaigner. she is plenty popular, but can she give the democrats and barack obama the boost they need before november? let's talk about it on the other side. tinted moisturizers, with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers. then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. ♪♪ check the news online weather, check the time ♪ ♪heck the wife, eck the kids ♪ ♪ check your email messages ♪ check the money in the bank ♪ check the gas in the tank ♪ check the flava from your shirt ♪ ♪ make sure your pits don't stank ♪ ♪ check the new hairdo, check the mic one two ♪ ♪ 'cause i'm about to drop some knowledge right on top of you ♪ ♪ you check a lot of things already why not add one more ♪ ♪ that can help your situation for sure ♪ ♪ check your credit score ♪ free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ free-credit-score ♪ you won't regret it at all! ♪ check the legal y'all. >>offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage.® to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness.

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the first lady of the united states, michelle obama will campaign for democratic candidates in half a dozen states in the last few days before the midterm elections. partially because she is remarkably popular. i'll talk about that in a second. but take a look at where she's going to be. she'll be in milwaukee, wisconsin, campaigning for russ feingold. in chicago, illinois, for senate nominee and others, she'll be in denver for michael bennett. she'll be in new york city for

the dnc leadership forum. in seattle for senator patty murray. she'll be in california, l.a. and san francisco for barbara boxer and san francisco for nancy pelosi, as well. michelle obama is hugely popular in this country. look at her favorable of 62%. her unfavorables are 25%. in political speak, that is very, very big. we'll talk about whether or not she'll have impact campaigning around the country. glenn thrush for politico.com. we love politico. and we love your hat, glen. good to see you. okay, she's popular. health care at the moment is not popular. things at the administration is doing is not popular, congress is not popular, both parties, the economy is not popular. is michelle obama going to make any difference? >> i'll add one thing, the president is not particularly popular. you're talking about a 15 point to 20-point spread between her popularity and her husband's.

yeah, i think she's going to make a big difference. and it's taken a long time for her to get the schedule out. a lot of local candidates like debbie calverson in illinois. >> let's talk about what she can say that's any different. look, these campaign rallies, we're always fascinated by them because they are generally populated by people who want to see you. if you watch one of these campaign rallies you think, my god, this guy's got everything he needs to sweep the democrats back into the house and the senate. what difference does it make that it's michelle obama? what can she possibly say to take advantage of her popularity which is a good 15 points higher than the president's? >> well, there's a couple of things. first and foremost, hillary clinton's campaign, which i covered in 2008 thought she had initially a really hard edge and she'd turn out to be a deficit for the president. but, in fact, she sort of has a softer touch. brings kind of a human element.

59% of democratic primary voters are women. the president, his numbers with women and white independents have been slipping. michelle obama might be a better surrogate in terms of making the president's case on the economy than the president is. >> the other is, of course, a number of democrats have complained generally that the president hasn't campaigned enough for them or hasn't raised enough funds for them. even an unpopular president or one who has his unfavorables, which by the way other presidents have had at this point in their tenure -- >> clinton and reagan. >> even he's more popular than a lot of the democrats running for office. >> yeah, and michelle obama's a rock star. it's really not that uncommon. we saw this phenomenon in 2006 when, you know, barack obama was more popular than hillary clinton when they were running around. but the real issue here has been for about two months this kind of wrestling match between the east wing where the first lady's staff is and the political office and the white house who wanted to get her out on the road. she felt really burned by some of her experiences in 2008. i don't know if you remember

that quote when she sort of said that the president's nomination was -- you know the first time she was really proud of this country. >> right. >> the fire storm that hit her after that had a really lingering impact. so getting her out there has been quite a challenge. >> all right. well, we will -- we will be watching everything everybody does to see what impact it has on the impact of the outcome of this election. glenn thrush at politico.com. a much brighter day, by the way, for those 33 chilean miner, who we are devoted to following until they are aboveground. rescuers are more optimistic than ever that a bigger faster drill will pave the way for an earlier rescue. ♪ where'd you learn to do that so well. ♪

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okay. time now for globe trekking. remember those miners trapped 2,300 feet, almost 1/2 mile under the ground. they are 33 of them there, and the first hole that has been dug to get them out -- the hole has actually reached them. but it was first a very narrow

drill. so it's there, they now have to widen it. it's still planning to take a long time, but there is a development and that development may get those miners out a little bit earlier. let's talk to patrick opman joining me from chile. what's the development? and how might this change the evolution of these guys getting out of their mine? >> reporter: you know, every day, ali, when officials come out and speak to us it seems like there's advances they announce and also with those advances, significant setbacks. and today was no different. a very dramatic setback. we'll start with that. the plan b drill, the drill you were just talking about that reached the miners last week still needs to be widened. very significant setback when the drill bit, the end of that drill fell down the mine shaft today. officials say they were drilling through some very hard material, very tough rock as there is so much of it in this area. and then they hit some looser material and that loss of equilibrium somehow kicked free, broke loose this drill bit which

fell all the way down into the mine. felt the immediate loss of pressure. and then amazingly, the miners from the bottom of the mine called to say that the drill bit had fallen down into the mine. none of them were hurt, but this was something of concern for them and officials, not something they'd planned on happening or foreseeing. luckily they've got about 30 extra drill bits they can hope to begin drilling with plan b again soon. on the plus side, the plan c drill began work in the last 24 hours. this is supposed to speed up quite a bit of this rescue attempt. still about 40 days is what the oil drilling officials are telling mine officials it'll take. but this -- this drill when it really gets going can drill up to -- up to 1,000 meters a day, ali. so it could really be a huge game changer if they can make those kinds of advances here. >> hey, patrick, i want to ask you one thing, when they get that hole, they're going to have

rescue chambers of some sort? that's how they're going to get the miners out? tell me about that. >> yes, sir. the chilean navy is at work right now designing three of these capsules. one for each one of the holes being drilled. we're told that it could take up to an hour to three hours per miner to pull them out. and it's going to be quite a scary ride. they're going to have oxygen in case there's any kind of problem. they're going to have to communication and water so they can stay hydrated on that two to three-hour journey. there's been discussion about blindfolding and possibly giving sedatives to the miners because it will be a scary process those last few hours getting them out of the mine. no decisions yet on how to prepare the miners for that -- for the final moments of captivity going up in the rescue capsules. >> maybe they'll be a good idea. but they are brave men, anyway. the fact is they've been in a closed space and they've been doing it for a long time.

they'll make it out of there one way or another. thank you for joining us. we'll stay on top of the story with you. if you're just leery about what is in your food when you eat out, you're going to want to listen up. i'm going to show you a technology that can change your eating habits and your life. this one means a lot to me given how much i travel and how much i eat. it's our big i. it's next.

all right. i want to talk to you about something that matters to me. i travel a great deal. i don't really know what is going on at some of the places i eat. look at how many times we all eat out.

the year ended july of 2010. so from july of 2009 to 2010, 59 billion restaurant visits in the u.s. that's 193 restaurant visits per person in the united states. over the next ten years, it is predicted that we will increase by 8%. so by 2019, we will be -- we'll be going to restaurants even more than we do now. that's an issue. because you can't control what you eat at restaurants the same way that you can control what you eat if you cook at home. so what if you really need to know what is in that food? maybe it's because you have a health concern, maybe it's because you just want to eat better. there is now an application -- there's a restaurant in atlanta that actually allows you to do that with technology, but there's an application you'll be able to use on your portable devices or on the internet to try to find out this information ahead of time. you can manage blood pressure, salt intake, sugar intake. i want to introduce you to a couple of people in the studio in atlanta right now with the demonstration of this technology.

beth is a professor at the college of computing at georgia tech. she's on the left. we have a physician and researcher with human computer interaction -- of human and computer interaction. also at georgia tech. they're going to tell us a little bit about this. folks, thanks for joining us. beth, tell me what this is about. >> you're welcome. what we're trying to do is change the face of health care delivery. and by that, we want to connect people with the most relevant and current health care information and make that information actionable and available in their daily lives. so in many cases, management of health, management of chronic disease is about what you eat day in and day out. and our research, we realize that people had hundreds of questions about what they should eat at the restaurants just as you described. >> so what have you got there? you've got behind you the web application. tell me how that would work. >> what we've done is created this application. and you can walk in. and based on your health care needs, it provides a personalized meal recommendation just for you. >> all right. you guys got a demo for me? >> yes.

>> i'm going to take them to the demo and show you how we do that. imagine you walk into this atlanta restaurant. instead of ordering from a regular paper menu, you order from the digital menu. the first thing the menu asks you, what is your health goal? and that's kind of the crux of this whole application. it gives you personalized advice at the time of ordering. let's just say i'm trying to stay healthy and i would like to order from the menu. what you're seeing here on the screen is a list of all the items from the menu that i've ranked in order of healthfulness. them helping you achieve that goal. you can see if i choose a different goal, manage diabetes, then the items are going to be different. the healthiest item to help you manage your blood glucose levels is the chow mein with beef. and it's different from you trying to build muscle or lose weight. that's the first aspect off this menu right here. >> all right. and beth, let me ask you this,

part of the issue here -- and this is what happens with me -- i try and know which one of those things identi've got to d. but it's sometimes counterintuitive. the surprised because sometimes what you think is healthy isn't. it's a matter of preparation. >> sometimes i'm surprised. i'll go to the restaurant and the things i thought were good to me turned out to be the wrong items. i would seek a personalized recommendation. it compared the two meals so i could see where the real differences were. >> where does this go from here? i'm going to have to try out the restaurant in atlanta. the reality is for all my viewers. i want something for my viewers no matter where they live. >> we have it in the kiosk at tin drum but it can be available at any restaurant. it can be matched. it can be available on a mobile

device or the web. you can decide before you go out there. >> you've got to get it out there so restaurants can sign up. >> we're looking for more restaurants to partner with. >> let's do it. let's get the restaurants on that program. it's going to keep us all healthier and it means we won't have to say it's not healthy to eat at restaurants. you can go out, eat a the restaurant, help the economy and stay healthy. i like this. georgia tech is going to be highlighted, by the way, at the future mediafest 2010, october 4 through 7. head to my blog, cnn.com/ali. i love that one. i want that one to work. alaska senator lisa murkowski lost her primary. now the republican party is sending her a message. it's crossing right now on our political ticker.

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it is time now for a cnn equals politics update. congressional correspondent dana bash is up on capitol hill. i love these debates because everyone comes on my show and gets to talk. what's crossing the wires right now? >> reporter: it's very interesting. they've been here for a couple of weeks from the campaign trail but they haven't gotten a lot done. they did do this small business

bill, but for the most parts democrats are trying to do with their time here. they blame the republicans for blocking some of their efforts. they have one more thing that's high on their political a list, and that's a bill to require more disclosure and transparency for those ads that may be on tv, maybe you're funded by corporations, unions, this may be in response to a supreme court ruling that says there could be free and open spending by those groups. they're going to try to change that once again. they don't have a lot of faith. republicans are already saying, here's once again an example of democrats trying to use the legislation that they're pushing for political gain right before the election. talking about politics in the segment, we're going to go to the second item on our ticker. lisa murkowski is the republican senator who lost her election in the primary in alaska.

probably in about ten minutes or so, the senate republicans, her colleagues, are going to do something essentially to, you know, tell her that they're not happy at all with what she's doing, rebuke her, and they're going to do that by taking her off her post as the ranking republican on the senate energy committee. why is that important? not only is that kind of a slap on the wrist in a big way. it also takes something away from her in terms of her campaign promises and arguments back in alaska saying, vote for me, send me back, i we've got a pretty important post in washington that can help the energy-rich back in alaska. the last thing, it's making them very happy and they're probably saying it's about time. that is the president is using his vast resources from his political team organizing for america, and he has taped a three-minute 48-second video begging his people, supporters,

3 million who get this list, please, please, in the words of the president, step up on your game. i need everybody to get out there and vote for democrats. that's something that many wish he would have done a long time ago. >> all right. dana, thanks very much. be sure to stay with cnn for complete coverage and key races heading into the critical midterm elections. your next update is just an hour away. all right, picking the next "american idol," a new batch of judges will be deciding who's got what it takes and who is bloody awful. hadn't told you to start looking over your shouer. ♪ we were gonna sneak up on ya. ya know, with our 1.4 liter turbo charged engine and our six speed automatic transmission. shhhh... we're going hunting. it's civic season. ♪ the all-new chevrolet cruze. starting under $17,000. get used to more. ♪

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fans. gone are simon, ellen, and cara. simon cowell and ellen degeneres quit. car ka was not invited back. in their place, j.lo, jennifer lopez, steven is steven tyler, lead singer for aerosmith whom we featured a few weeks ago on the show. those are the two we heard most about. they will join randy jackson. there she is. where's tyler? is he there? are we going to see him? trust me, those are your new judges on "american idol." it's a new hour. a start ling new study says extra bucks don't translate into motivation or smarter students. that's going to be an interesting one for us to delve into. plus he leads one of the ggest churches in america.

he's been invited to the white house. now a georgia pastor is facing gligss that could forever tarnish his image and topple what he's built. also, she would be the first woman in america to be executed. exerted say she's borderline mentally retarded. an overhaul had contemplated, debated, attempted, didn't work. this president did it. was signed into law by president obama six months ago. today you may have seen the president is talking up provisions of that law, which come into force this week. it's what the white house calls a patience bill of rights. he's just about the only dem crate likely to use the words "health" and "reform".

voters are split, to say the least, on health care. a cnn poll last month says 40% of americans favor health care reform. 56% oppose it. but among the opponents it breaks down this way. most say it's too liberal, goes too far, too much, too big. but a sizeable chunk of the opponents say it doesn't go far enough. so if you add the people who favor it to those who say it doesn't go far enough, you have a majority of us who like it. this makes it very tricky when it comes to a campaign. when we asked which party can handle it a little better, it's a little clearer. 46% say democrats, 45% say republicans. >> and health care was one of those issues that we could no longer ignore. we couldn't ignore it because the cost of health care has been escalating faster than just

about anything else, and i don't need to tell you all that. even if you have health insurance, your co-payments, premiums sky rocket. even if you get health care from your employer, that employer's costs have skyrocketed, and they're starting to pass more and more of those costs onto their employees. most people don't get health care from their employers. >> republicans are vowing to undercut if not outright appeal if they don't get control of the house. in the meantime 20 states are party to a lawsuit in florida. you can see them there. a ruling is expected next month on the administration's motion to throw that lawsuit out. some of those lawsuits, by the way, were filed by attorneys general of states not supported by their governors or by their legislatures. we'll hear more about that. first let's bring in senior politic politic

political analyst gloria borger and steve. it was largely based on the fact that we could have waited longer. we waited a long time and perhaps in the midst of the greatest recession since the great depression it wasn't a good idea to do that. what's your take? >> well, you know, it's interesting. think when barack obama came into office, he had a couple of choices. he could have just done the agenda that was handed him, which was the terrible economy, or he could have done the agenda that he ran on, which was reforming health care and a whole host of other things. instead he decided to do both, ali, right? he worked on the stimulus package and health care reform for nine months. instead of doing a more circumspect plan which was a little smaller which some in the white house advocated -- ed henry knows about this -- the president decided you could not reform health care without going

whole hog if you really wanted to do it the right way and save cost downs the road. so he took a big gamble on this. you know, we may discover in the mid term elections that it fires on him. ten months down the road he may be considered a transitional president. the jury is still out. we don't know what the long-term impact is. >> ed, the president was one of those guys whoa wanted to go whole hog. he was liberal on health care. that 13% who don't think this goes far enough thinks he only went half hog, he didn't deal with the health cost. he dealt with the coverage issue. so this was going to be the president's silver bull e. i think gloria is right. in ten years history may look fondly on him. maybe they won't. in the next 40 days, how are they to handle this? >> i think the 13% is one the

president may bang his head against the wall for the next six months. it's interesting because, you know, we've got this story breaking that rahm emanuel may be leaving as soon as october to go run as mayor of chicago. he was one of the guys gloria was talking about who behind the scenes last year was pushing as gloria knows full well telling the president, look, go a little smaller in health care, get one big bite of the apple, come back later, get back on jobs, et cetera. now, you can say the president was right because in the end he won on health care reform, but what did he really win? rahm emanuel might have been right last year, if he had done half the load and gone back to jobs we might be in a better position. this is one of those few health care events we see the president doing in the final stretch. he did it because it's the six-month anniversary of the bill being signed into law. they're going back to jobs and economy, there's no doubt about it. >> let's talk about this.

gloria, i want to ask you about this. a lot of changes. larry summers going back to harvard, christina romer leave. what's going on in the white house and how should we read this because you can't just read those headlines on their own. >> right. i mean, you know, first of all, rahm is kind of a separate category because he will leave go run for another office. larry summers and peter orszag and the other folks who have left, you get a lot of burnout in the white house. after two years of trying to fix the economy, you can screws anybody for wanting to go back to what they did before, but it does give the president a real opportunity here, i think, to kind of change the narrative. you know, this has been some charge of insular white house that hasn't reached out to the business community. ali, you know this better than i do. what if they were to reach out

to the business community to take over larry summer's position for example. and for the rahm emanuel, what if they brought someone in with a fresh eye? >> you know, we've seen lots of presidents who do that because the chief of staff is so important as the gateway to the president. maybe it would be good to have somebody with a kind of a fresh view over there. >> all right. so you see it as an opportunity. >> i do. >> ed, we're going to get a chance to tuck to you a little more in a half hour. and gloria borger, our political analyst. >> we'll see if that agrees with me. >> very good. all right. another topic we like to talk about on this show is the school of public education. it's one thing to fix schools. a new study appears to blow a big hole in that theory. i'll discuss it on the other side.

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okay. a new study questioned the benefit of teacher/merit pay, which is weird because we think everybody should get paid on their performance. nashville did their first scientific rigorous test of merit pay for teachers. merit paydy not to induce test scores. half f were eligible for bonuses if their students scored significantly higher than expected on a tennessee assessment test. 51 of the eligible teachers got

a bonus at least once. that's about 34%. only 18 teachers got bonuses all three years, but overall the students didn't test better or learn faster than teachers who received bonuses. arne duncan thinks otherwise. when asked about the results of this study, a spokesman for duncan said, quote, while this is a good study, it only looked at the narrow question of whether more pay motivates teachers to try harder, end quote. he says it does not address the obama administration's push to change the culture of teaching by giving all educators the feedback they need to get better. we will continue to look at the study tomorrow. the head researcher will join us, and i'm going to ask some tough questions. when eddie long preaches,

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. when bishop eddie long speaks, thousands packed into his mega church in atlanta listen. now long faces serious allegations of sexual miscond t misconduct. were filed yesterday in a lawsuit. long denies the allegations that two young men accuse him of coercing them into sexual acts. during his tenure long has call far national ban on same-sex marriage. long is the pastor of the sprawling new mission baptist church which boasts 25,000

members and he has a global tv ministry. when he took over at that time there were only about 150 members. cnn's ed lave andera joins us live. >> reporter: as you might imagine this story has sent shock waves not only through the church here just outside atlanta but across the world. as you mentioned, bishop eddie long has a spiritual empire that reaches around the globe, so these allegations very stunning, and essentially what these two young men, now 20 and 21 are alleging is that starting at the time they were 17, 18 years old they had kind of fallen into bishop eddie long's prey if you will saying that the bishop used his spiritual authority in the church to coerce them into a sexual relationship. want to be clear about this. at this point we're not looking at anything criminal. the age of consent in the state of georgia is 16.

everything we read in these lawsuits and the attorney renting these two young men, they were of age when these relationships started, ali. so this is incredibly shocking. allegations are being levied against a bishop revered in his chur. . this morning a spokesperson came out and had very harsh things to say about the two young men abusing eddie long of this sexual abuse. >> this is actually a shakedown for money. this is something that went from 48 hours of contact with the attorney, claiming outrageous demands to this dog-and-pony show that we began seeing yesterday. >> we had a chance to follow up with the attorney representing the two young men. she said these two young men were prepared for this kind of response and that's why it's been so difficult for them to come forward. >> the issue here is it had to

be brought out to the public so that this stops, and these two young men -- it is incredibly difficult for young men to claim that they have had any sort of contact with another man, much less their pastor. this is bringing them scorn and ridicule as you're already hearing from the church. >> reporter: and, ali, as you might imagine, this is such a big deal, big news, since eddie long has been so vocally opposed to gay marriage. obviously many people wondering if this is indeed true, you know, many questions about hypocrisy here in light of the allegations being thrown at the bishop at this point. ali? >> idahed, this church for peop who don't know, what is the history? >> when eddie long took it over, it had 300 members. it's grown to more than 25,000

members in that church now. when king pass add way a few years ago, martin luther king's family had requested that her funeral service be held in his church. you're talking about a man who has a reach around the world, one of the mega premier pastors around the country. he has a loud voice, a powerful voice that many, many people listen to. >> we miss each other once again. >> i'll hold the fort down for you. >> please do. let me bring you up to speed with some of the stories we're following on cnn. is the cia running a pair a military force made up of afghan soldiers? that's one of the claims in bob woodward's book. a senior administration source tells cnn the president comes across as a decisive commander in chief. in the book, the cia has not

commented. eight current and former officials from belle, california, are being arraigned today on charges of miss appropriating funds and taking illegal loans. the investigations started after reports surfaced that some of them were making salaries in the high six figures. and in chile, advances and setbacks to reach the 33 trapped mineners. plan c is to try to reach the miners who have been trapped underground since early august. meanwhile another drill has broken through. it ran into problems. the bit fell off into the mine that. will slow progress of widening the drill hole. once a year we get a harvest moon. it's quite a sight. this year we're going to see a super harvest moon.

chad is with us from than with tropical weather. and what's going on there, chad? >> lisa and maybe matthew. now that we're up to the ls and the ms, it's a big season. lisa, here at the cape verde islands. this is africa, okay? you know how long it takes to fly. think about it -- i never have done it. you have when you went to the soccer cup thing. you can imagine how longite going to take lisa to become

anything in our hemisphere. 45 miles per hour right now. gusts to 60. and it is moving to the southeast very slowly. moving to the southeast at about three miles per hour. this is not really the one that i'm concerned about because it has such a long way to go. this could be matthew. right now it's 95 l. who would think of the name 95 l? >> it's easy to remember. >> give it a name and get it over with. you can see the spin there. so it's a little bit farther to the south. typically i you don't get storms to affect aruba, bonaire. it could happen. obviously with this one it's happening a little bit. the forecast is for it to get really tricky. ite e going to kind of get down here, maybe make a run here. sit around for a couple of days, and try to come back out into the gulf coast. it really hurt it a lot, good

news, because it can gull p a lot of dry air off the land, off the mountains in here. also while it sits here and spins put down an awful lot of rain f in spots and that can make headaches for flooding. one more thing we talked about here, this is georgette. it was a storm. now not. that's why it's called tropical depression superiorjet. but sometimes these storms can just bring enough moisture with them that when they get up here toward tucson and phoenix and the valley of the sun, it's not sunny any more. it could be windy and bring moisture and rain and slow down the valley. >> let's go off the radar for a moment. >> okay. tonight is the autumn equinox. that means -- >> two hours of daylight, 12 hours of night around the world. >> during that darkness you will

see a full moon that only happens once in a while. 14, 18 years. why does that happen? >> well, if you have a calendar, if you look at the calendar one day, that's going to be your equinox. this is 30 or 31 days. obviously, september 30. you have your lunar calendar which is about 28 days. they don't match up every year do they. they rotate and all of a sudden your full moon and harvest moon are at the same time but the equinox keeps rolling around the calendar. this is the closest we could get. when our moon comes up, 11:00 the sun will be directly behind the earth and it will be shining pretty at the moon and so will jupiter. you'll be able to see that. >> and the moon is going to look redder, and it's going to look bigger than it normally does, but both of those -- the bigger is the illusion and the redder is because it's low and there'll

be more junk in between us and the moon. >> maybe. i'm not buying all that. >> you don't think it's going to look like it looks right behind you? >> sure. if you can see it. you know what makes it look so big is because you have a house here and a building here. it comes up over the horizon and it looks gigantic and a couple minutes later it's up here and looks much smaller but, it's all an illusion. >> you are a buzz kill some days. >> i'm going to have to come back to atlanta and whip you into shape. >> it's a beautiful moon. they're going to kiss under the moon? and the farmers are going to harvest all night long because the moon is so bright. that's where the story comes from. >> thank you. chad myers in our weather center. president obama making a major change. the plan is being unveiled in a short while at united nations. [ female announcer ] you use the healing power of touch every day.

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globe tracking today. we're going to talk about united nations. the president is here in new york for the beginning of the u.n. general assembly. we have begun calling it u.n. at 4:45, a little more than two hours, the president is going to make an important speech and in it he's going to talk about the way in which the u.s. financially helps other countries. jill dougherty is following this really closely. she's got information on what the president is going to say that may have fundamentally changed the way they interact with other countries. >> they're calling them global development policy. let's think of how they do it now. how they do it now, you look at

the countries, some of them. you might call them basket cases to coin a phrase and they go in, they throw a lot of money at it, and then they hope that the country improves. they might do some education, et cetera. what the obama administration is saying is let's perform triage. let's look at the successful -- the winner countries that still have problems but are still developing but let's concentrate on that. these would be countries that are, number one, have a good government, they're globally connected, they're economically stable and they're marketedly oriented. have to come up to the bar on certain areas. then the u.s. government takes all of the different departments and says, okay, how do we go in and really buttress them, how do we go in and help them do what they want to do. this raises the question what happens to the basket cases. >> or the people in the basket cases who are not party, may not

fit the bill. >> right. is a legitimate question. they say that they're not going to diminish help or anything like that, but it really -- it's a very different approach. it's versus stainable. and they're also going to use criteria. they're going to study what works, what doesn't work and use technology. >> this has been evolving over the years. the international monetary fun has been doing the same thing. we're going to pump money into your country burke we need to see your records. how is this going to go over? >> with who? >> well, we will ignore domestic policy for a second. nothing the president is saying is going to go well these days. >> that's important because you want it to sell. it would go over well, one would think. that's what they think. number one, the president is saying we're not pulling out, we're not leaving, we're still going to help but it's going to be much more sustainable and much more helpful to the countries that are going to work and it's also going to encourage

countries to do the things that the united states believes. >> do we know yet a list of winners and losers under this sort of thing? has that analysis been done yet? >> they're mentioning ghana as an example. they're not really talking specifically about a whole lot of other countries. i'm sure we're going to find that out. >> that would be interesting to see who gains, who loses. thanks very much. you'll know more about this. we'll continue to cover everything going on at the u.n. this year. one veteran is not just serving on the battlefield. he's waging a war on poverty.

this week united nations is holding a special summit to address one of the world's ugliest problems, poverty. one in three people lives on less than a dollar a day. that's 2 billion people, by the way. they made a list of development goals back in 2000. they wanted to meet them by 2015. they want to address specific problems, eight of them to eradicating poverty and making world a better place. eight main goals. universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving health, combatting hiv and other diseases. mission impossible today thinks those goals won't just make this world a better place. they help create something called soft power. soft pow fehr you look in the dictionary is ability to achieve

goals without force. this week's u.n. summit may be a key to wielding our soft power. major john reddy is a retired army reserve major. he's here in new york. thank you for bug with us. >> thank you. thank you for having us. >> you're an advocate wearing a badge called 1. tell us about that. >> our main mission is to combat poverty around the world. lack of water, lack of medicine. >> idea that you -- you've been in the military. >> yes. >> you have served in iraq. >> yes, i did. >> but you feel our power, the soft power, could be an even bigger power. >> i've seen it myself. when i got back from iraq i looked for one to get involved with because i've seen it

myself, the use of soft power. i was a civil affairs officer over there, and i was executive officer of a ca battali tallian. they had no running water, they had no sewer. their canals were wet, backed up, and there was no way to effectively irrigate their crops. they neglected underneath the saddam regime. so with confiscated money, our civil affairs specialists acted as project managers, and over the next two months we rebuilt their water and sewer lines and we opened up the flood gates for their canals. >> we heard, for instance in af afghanistan, that kind of thing srks going to win the hearts and souls of people much more so

than the military force will. >> exactly. this was a perfect example of that because there was -- there were some friends of ours, an active duty unit. they were getting ready to deploy home. just the night before third quarter had their vehicles all lined up in their logistical base near the airport. they were getting ready to line up on the main line and the village elder came there with a map, he couldn't speak a word of english but they got a translator but found some insurgents had buried some rocket launchers, grenades, machine guns, and ak-47s in his field. they went down and caught them just before they started the ambush. and if they hadn't done there, there would have been probably 300 soldiers killed that morning as they were getting ready to leave. >> wow. it's interesting to hear a military man talk about that

because what you do in the military is so specific and so definite. it has a specific end result. here you're talking about a movement to win over hearts and minds of people to subscribe over it. i guess when you look at it, ten years to meet these very, very big goals, thing the world falls into two big groups, those like you or people like ted turner, people like mohammed eunice who think you can solve things like world hunger and disease and the passage of hiv and those who think they can't. what do these meetings do? what tan jibly happens to make the soft power work? >> if you have enough people like myself and the other members of one who have actually had experience on the ground, we can prove to these world powers that this can be accomplished. the village elder who i talked about before, they asked him why

he did that, why he turned the bad guys in. he said because the american soldiers came to my village and they got my water pack and i can grow crops. they were talking about us, but he was referring to the u.s. army. and that was -- that's just one instance where it wasn't on a global level, but a lot of americans' lives were saved. >> all of these challenges. great to see you, major. great to see you. he's with one. we talked to you a little bit earlier this week about one. for more information on it go to cnn.com/ali. listen, i got this news just in i want to bring you. c nnn has learned that a civil suit has been filed in georgia against atlanta megachurch leader eddie long alleging sexual coercion with a pastor when jamal parish, 23 years old,

when he was a child. this is a third suit. long's spokesmen art franklin were reached on tuesday about the first two lawsuits. they said we categorically deny the allegations. it's very unfortunate that someone has taken this course of action. our law firm will respond once we've had an opportunity to review the lawsuit. franklin also just told cnn that long will hold a news conference tomorrow morning. more details as we get them. when we come back, ed henry standing by. the white house chief of staff could be out by halloween, and henry not wearing a costume outside the white house. ♪ [ male announcer ] every business day, bank of america lends billions of dollars, to individuals, institutions, schools, organizations and businesses. ♪

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the white house chief of staff could be gone by next month. ed henry is on the stakeout as he is always every day. let me ask you this. it's a big topic of discussion. i've seen it all over the place. we've talked about it. tell me again for my viewers, why do we care? it's not like there won't be a chief of staff. rahm emanuel will run for mayor of chicago an he'll probably win that. why is it important? >> it's one of the most important jobs in the world

because if you think the job of the president of the united states is important, and he clearly is, this is the person who sets the agenda. he was pushing the wall street reform, health care reform, handles the president's schedule, who's going to get in to the office to see him. from top to bottom, national security crises, potential attacks. the way he's involved is remarkable that people like rahm emanuel even stick around for two years. it's unbelievable when you think about people don't understand. the chief of the white house staff gets up around 4:00 a.m. but your job, you literally are working 18, 20 hour as day every day, basically saturday and sunday as well. the president never sleeps. rahm emanuel is a personable personality. chicago is a big city. it's an important city of the

united states in the middle of the country. it seems likely he's going to run iflt seems likely he's going to run as early as october and they're going to have to search for a new chief of staff. this is an important job that sets the agenda for the lead ovof the world. the other thing the president is dealing with today, it's the six-month -- what do you call it -- six months since the president signed he eed heae reform into law. more importantly, 40 days to go before the mid term elections and some are not thinking that success with health care is not going to help them in their re-election chances stho they thought months ago after all the hard work of passing health care that that would be a political boon, it really hasn't materialized. i think the president had to do this today to try to continue to fight the good fight and tout

his accomplishment but he's going to go back to job and the economy as quick as he can. out on the south lawn, he's going to new york city for the u.n. general assembly meetings you were talking about with jill dougherty and others. he still has foreign policy on his plate. you never sleep. there are a lot of issues he's taking on. there's a lot that gets thrown your way whether you like it or not. he's got a few days in new york, a lot of foreign policy to deal with. health care he i going to talk about today. he's going to go back to the economy and jobs next week. >> when the president's into it, when he's in campaign mode, you really see it. what's all the talk about the president's mojo? >> well, you know, i've got a story on cnn.com. we spent the weekend in southeast virginia. we picked that state in part because it's a state the president carried, the first democrat to do so since 1964. and we talked to democrats,

republicans, independents across the board. we talked about angry voters. we talked to lots, no matter where they stand, that they think the president is a good person, heart in the right place, but many who voted for him are telling me they think he took on a little too much, too fast. one voter said it's far more than any one man can do in 24 months. they're probably going to be tightening the agenda, especially if they have a republican congress. it will be beyond their control. >> what are you doing friday night? >> friday night -- >> i'm not asking you out. >> i'm going to be out of town. i'm busy. you have a big movie premiere. >> i was going to say -- i assume if you're busy friday night or saturday -- >> i'm going to watch the premiere of your movie -- i'll call it your movie instead of oliver stone's. it's like madonna, cher.

you're velshi. know who my friends are. >> i may not be your friend beyond that. >> we'll see. ed henry at the white house stakeout. no need to worry. you don't have to wait for more debates. l your blood sugar. you exercise and eat right, but your blood sugar may still be high, and you need extra help. ask your doctor about onglyza, a once daily medicine used with diet and exercise to control high blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. adding onglyza to your current oral medicine may help reduce after meal blood sugar spikes and may help reduce high morning blood sugar. [ male announcer ] onglyza should not be used to treat type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. tell your doctor if you have a history or risk of diabetic ketoacidosis. onglyza has not been studied with insulin. using onglyza with medicines such as sulfonylureas

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time for a cnn politics update. they are at the cnn politics.com desk in washington.

paul, kick it off. what's crossing now? ali, why wait until november? you know what, three states, absentee voting is under way. they all started on monday. iowa, wyoming set to start tomorrow. and next week ohio and nebraska. a lot of states moving toward early voting over the last decade or two. you know what it means? some of those campaign ads going up, too late for some voters a. ali, what have you got. >> that was ronald reagan's theme. well the late president's close friend friends and associates have a new play out. they're calling it morning in america. they're trying to focus that the economy is in such bad straits. a national cable to really try to hit president obama.

back to paul. >> let's talk about the tea party express. can you take a look at this? the tea party express said that come monday they're going to announce their fourth tea party bus tour but they put out a few details already. ali, i learned, a source told me there's a two-week tour that's going to end on election day and end in nevada. one more thing. you know, ali, big news today. john king -- this has just been confirmed. john king, our chief, national correspondent, will be monitoring eight governors' debate down in florida. we're doing it in tampa. our partner is the "st. petersburg times." it's going to happen af after cy crowley dawkroucrowley does a d

>> we miss listening to you guys every day making it make sense. thank you, guys. taking a turn here. the death penalty is never an easy thing to talk about. i'm not saying i have those solutions. i've got thoughtet. [ male anno] marie callender's invites you back to lunch, with a new line of fresh recipes. like chicken teriyaki with water chestnuts. it steams to perfection in minutes, giving the fresh flavors and textures of a homemade meal. marie's new steamed meals. it's time to savor.

personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. time now for the x, y, z of it. tomorrow convicted murderer theresa lewis is set for her lethal injection. of course the death penalty is a hot button issue in the united states and indeed around the world as proponents believe it

can be a legitimate deterrent to a violent crime. reasons why she shouldn't die tomorrow, among them, she's also expressed remorse for the murder of her husband and her stepson in crimes she pleaded guilty for her part in, and the fact that the two men convicted for conspiring to murder with her have been spared the death penalty. but i come with my own baggage on the death penalty issue. i grew up in canada where the last time someone was executed for murder was 1962. dpnlt really deters crime. well, all of those sentiments from the canadian public coalesced into the complete elimination of capital punishment in 1976. but there are other reasons to eliminate capital punishment in the united states. the death row in the united states, very costly. they don't believe the death penalty deters murder and they're rated as one of the most

inefficient uses of taxpayer money to fight crime. a report that was put out by the richard deeters group says maintaining people on death row and supporting propositions that likely will never be carried out is becoming increasingly expensive and harder to justify. looking back at theresa lewis's case she was convict and sentenced in 2002 for her crime and the significant cause of legal appeals. many appeals take much longer. his report says the money spent to preserve the system estimated to be $10 million per year makes the society safer. that's more food for thought. that's it for me. time now for "rick's list." indeed we do have breaking news as we begin. hello, everybody. i'm